Electrical circuit with a testing device for testing the quality of electronic connections in the electrical circuit
AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
InventorUlf Pillkahn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Given the inventive electrical circuit with a device for testing connections in electrical circuits, the change of a test signal (27) due to the effect of a long line is used for determining the quality of an electrical connection (e.g., of a pin). In particular, a determination about the terminating impedance and, thus, about the quality of the connection, is made by defining a maximum value of the test signal (28) reflected at the line end. An existing boundary scan test implementation with appropriate expansions can thereby be used, including a test controller. Standard digital signals can be employed as test signal when their propagation time is lengthened by a delay element.
Claims31
An electrical circuit comprising:
- a testing device for testing electrical connections quality in the said electrical circuit;
- a test signal generator for generating a test signal and supplying said generated test signal to an electrical connection to be tested;
- an evaluator for receiving a reply signal from the said connection under test in response to a supplied said test signal, said evaluator being configured for registering a propagation time between test signal and reply signal, and comparing said reply signal to an anticipated signal, and evaluating a quality of said tested electrical connection on a basis of said propagation time and said signal comparison.
An electrical component comprising:
- an integrated circuit which comprises an electrical circuit, said electrical circuit comprising:
- a testing device for testing electrical connections quality in the said electrical circuit;
- a test signal generator for generating a test signal and supplying said generated test signal to an electrical connection to be tested;
- an evaluator for receiving a reply signal from the said connection under test in response to a supplied said test signal, said evaluator being configured for registering a propagation time between test signal and reply signal, and comparing said reply signal to an anticipated signal, and evaluating a quality of said tested electrical connection on a basis of said propagation time and said signal comparison.
A method for testing a quality of electrical connections in electrical circuits, comprising the steps of:
- generating a defined test signal by a testing device in said electrical circuits;
- supplying said generated test signal to an electrical connection to be tested;
- receiving a reply signal from said connection under test in response to said supplied test signal;
- determining a propagation time between said test signal and said reply signal;
- and
- comparing said reply signal to an anticipated signal for evaluating a quality of said electrical connection.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.